INTRODUCTION: Peter Hamilton
needs no introduction since he is one of today's leading science
fiction writers and the ‘King’ of modern space opera. Even his second
tier space operas are head and shoulders above most everything written
in the genre. At his best like in The Night's Dawn trilogy which is my all time favorite finished sff series, or in “Pandora's Star”
with its vividly described future and multilayered plotlines that
converge in so many interesting and unexpected ways, the author evokes a
sense of wonder that is unrivaled.

On the other hand his standalone novel Fallen Dragon had great promise and a sweet wish fulfilling ending but ultimately lacked the sophistication of his main series as it was structurally weaker, so when another standalone, Great North Road, with the blurb below was announced, I was both very excited and a little worried how it will go. "In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, AD 2142, Detective Sidney Hurst attends a brutal
murder scene. The victim is one of the wealthy North family clones –
but none have been reported missing. And the crime’s most disturbing
aspect is how the victim was killed. Twenty years ago, a North clone
billionaire and his household were horrifically murdered in exactly the
same manner, on the tropical planet of St Libra. But if the murderer is
still at large, was Angela Tramelo wrongly convicted? Tough and
confident, she never waivered under interrogation – claiming she alone
survived an alien attack. But there is no animal life on St Libra.

Investigating this alien threat becomes the Human Defence Agency’s top
priority. The bio-fuel flowing from St Libra is the lifeblood of Earth’s
economy and must be secured. So a vast expedition is mounted via the
Newcastle gateway, and teams of engineers, support personnel and
xenobiologists are dispatched to the planet. Along with their technical
advisor, grudgingly released from prison, Angela Tramelo. But the
expedition is cut off, deep within St Libra’s rainforests. Then the
murders begin. Someone or something is picking off the team one by one.
Angela insists it’s the alien, but her new colleagues aren’t so sure.
Maybe she did see an alien, or maybe she has other reasons for being on
St Libra ... In this stunning, standalone adventure, Peter F. Hamilton
blends fast-paced narrative with vividly imagined future-worlds"

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: On finishing my first read of Great North Road, I was a
little mixed: an addictive but very self-indulgent read, a new universe and a
somewhat fresh take on the author's usual themes - long life, the rich,
sense of wonder, detailed world building, "alien aliens" - but also same thematic repetitions becoming a bit too much; not to speak of pages after pages dedicated to the burning issue of identifying a missing taxi in the all-around surveillance world of the 2300's...

I also thought that Great North Road was a book that should have been
slimmed down considerably and could have easily done with much less from
the Newcastle police investigation which takes probably about half the
novel and gets very boring after a while. Similarly the parochial mannerisms from that thread are funny once or twice but get tired quite fast, with "pet" the worst
offender by a lot.

On the
second read when you know that you can skip a lot of the bloat and lose nothing, the novel improved in so far I knew to avoid the large
chunk dealing with the Newcastle police investigation and just focus on
Angela's saga which is actually excellent, so I suggest the following strategy to all the new readers, strategy that will improve considerably in my opinion your experience of Great North Road:

Read Angela's story
and only browse through the Newcastle investigation; especially if you get stalled early into
the book, start at page 232 and look up the first chapter with Angela
in prison and then skip everything that takes place in Newcastle - no loss as anyway what happens there is updated for the heroes of the
space opera part in a few lines every now and then - except towards the
end when the stories converge; this way you will have one of the most gripping reads of the author as the space opera/planetary adventure part is superb.

The many details that add depth to the world building - the billionaire only planet Monaco - of course with lots of "non-citizen" help, the North clone brothers, their different paths and their many progeny which emphasize how the super rich will be always different, the personal story of Angela and of course lots more - are vintage Hamilton and I cannot emphasize enough how good are those 600 pages dedicated to the alien/Angela thread.

The tuckerization of fans and Tor people is a nice inside joke and it's good to see the coming of age of the online community expressed this way in important novels like Great North Road or Dance with Dragons; if you are not aware of this, it's worth digging a little for details.

5
comments:

Yvonne
said...

I am only 300 pages in and agree with the comment in relation to the annoying use of "pet". A bit of an overkill in my opinion.The investigation in Newcastle is becoming a bit tiresome, but I am thoroughly intrigued with Angela and her story - this promises to be the real "guts" of the tale. I keep getting the feeling that it has been written deliberately to translate to the screen; unlike his previous works which were are are my favourite SCI Fi reads and written unashamedly as books pure and simple. Will see how it progresses!

I am only at page 250 and what I really would have appreciated is a glossary explaining the huge list of acronyms that the author constantly uses.I am forever having to flip backwards to remind myself what the various abbreviations mean. Also without wishing to get political I wish Peter Hamilton had been a bit more revolutionary with respect to the Israel/Palestine conflict. 2047 and still no mention of Palestine on an equal footing with Israel. A pity.Constanée

I've just finished the book and enjoyed it a lot. I'd like a sequel as I think the Angela character was excellent.

Regarding skipping the Newcastle police station sections, I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I'm sympathetic as I had the same reaction to the void trilogy and on the second read, skipped all the Edeard sections.